


These Answers I Seek

by Ripuku



Category: Dishonored
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-10
Updated: 2013-06-10
Packaged: 2017-12-14 12:34:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/836922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ripuku/pseuds/Ripuku
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daud has many questions, and few answers. His latest encounter with the Lord Protector has left him with only more questions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	These Answers I Seek

What was he doing. This wasn't repentant. This was just a continuation of his transgressions against the people he'd already harmed. Corvo crumbles at his feet, blood running over his hands where they press against his ribs; the same blood that stains Daud's blade. Daud does not know why he is fighting so hard. He thought he was resigned to his end, and yet, here they are in this warehouse. Is he really ready to meet his fate? 

The blood shining on metal in the dying light says no; his body reacts instinctively to protect the things his mind has decided it no longer desires. The desperate man at his feet needs to live in order to undo the damage Daud has wrought upon this grey city, so why is Daud trying so hard to stop him? Daud cannot answer these questions, just as he cannot answer for his crime if he kills the one person capable of bringing about justice. 

And yet, the blade rises high over them both. He can see Corvo's eyes move to it, follow its arc downward. There is no acceptance in the Lord Protector's eyes. There is...fear. But Daud knows it is not for his own life. He can see were Corvo's real fears lie. For Emily. For the little girl Daud sent to the wolves. And for what? This? Pointless blood on the cold floor of a warehouse? 

Daud wishes he could say that that is the reason that his blade does not bury itself in Corvo's unprotected body. But it is the unexpected arrival of a group of Overseers that does it. Corvo heaves himself from the floor at the sound of their shouts, and Daud is away in the rafters as the first shots ring out. Corvo runs across the warehouse floor, hand clamped to his ribs. Why is he not using his Void-powers? The idiot could be away and safe in mere seconds, and yet there he is running away without even thinking....about...it... Daud sees it then. The desperation has taken over Corvo's face. The mark on Corvo's bloody hand flares brilliantly, then dies back to black against his skin. Had he truly used all his energy in the fight? Had he been so willing to give everything that he saved nothing? 

Daud watches, transfixed. Corvo leaps and dodges like a gymnast, his movements swift, graceful, precise, despite the dire situation and the blood trail he leaves. Daud's next breath catches in his throat as that grace is interrupted by a lucky gunman and a bullet that buries itself in Corvo's shoulder. And just as he could not answer for his actions of mere moments ago, he cannot answer for why he is now back upon the floor, bending time long enough to snatch Corvo up from the floor, trying not to look to long at the bullet inches from Corvo's face, dragging him away as time restarts itself. The bullet ricochets off the floor, the sound of it lost in the shouts of confused and angry Overseers. 

Corvo is stumbling, pale, _/heavy/_. Daud does not look back at the Overseers chasing them, trying to find somewhere he can transverse them to. He cannot summon any of his assassins currently, else he would not be able to take Corvo with him in the jump. They really needed to have a talk with the Outsider about raising the cap of their limits if they lived through this. A gun fires from near his hip and he turns. Corvo looks grim, gun in hand, an Overseer Daud hadn't seen falls from his hiding place. Daud grunts his thanks and hauls Corvo onward. Corvo is gasping now, but he won't stop, even though Daud has to take more of his weight with every meter they run. The Overseers are catching up swiftly. Corvo points with the gunbarrel to a door and Daud shoulders it open. 

And they fall. 

The door opens onto a balcony overlooking the bay and Daud cannot stop them both going over the low railing. The water is unforgiving. Daud hits hard, the wind knocked out of him. They are lucky they missed the rocks, no doubt a small token from their dark eyed benefactor, but the fall is still damaging. Corvo sinks beside him, unconscious, heavy coat dragging him down. His hands are stretched upward, hair haloed about his face. Daud's lungs are burning already, but if he goes back up for air, he will not be able to keep Corvo from sinking down into the depths, out of his reach, and into the Outsider's hands. He reaches, misses, slips, finally grabs.

The first breath of air is painful, water forcing its way out of his throat and nose harshly. He swims out of range of the Overseers on the balcony, dragging Corvo behind him in the water. Corvo has not woken, and Daud cannot see if he is breathing. He cannot stop to check, they are in deep water still, Daud can do nothing but swim for the inlet he sees with every bit of haste he has left. He summons a whaler there to help him, since transversing is now out of the equation. 

If the whaler has questions, he is good enough to keep his mouth shut as he drags Daud and Corvo onto shore. Corvo begins breathing again with an occasional bout of choking, shaking and shivering on the ground, blood running into the sand. Daud digs the bullet from his shoulder with little sympathy; not that Corvo offers much in the way of pitiful noises like some whalers Daud knows, but it is still a painful thing. Fortunately, this whaler has a small med pack with him, and his ration of elixir. Daud takes both, uses them to patch the Lord Protector as best he can, then knocks him out again. The whaler only stares at Daud as Daud directs him to leave Corvo near the sewer grate a ways away; that is where Corvo will be meeting his contacts to go back to wherever it is he is hiding these days. 

Daud stays on the beach, and when the whaler comes back and reports that Corvo has been found by the appropriate people, transverses back to base with his assistance. The whaler asks only once about the situation. 

"Why, sir?"

Daud has only one answer to give, and gives it only once. The whaler doesn't ask again.

"If he dies, so does this city." 


End file.
